Maiƶerus

The pocket boxes facilitate an absurd economy--trading in nonsense. Although I need it to connect with readers (a unique psychographic), I loathe Instagram. As a subsidiary of Meta, Instagram is stuck in Facebook 2006: selfie after selfie. It's extremely unpleasant. It's 100% OK to take special pictures--share your life/events--in moderation--motivated by sincerity. Just know that people are growing tired of daily self-admiration. This post was "suggested to me" by Instagram--twice. Why do I need to see a fellow middle-aged person bragging about being wealthy enough to cease working--to globetrot. Therein, I am being asked to watch this man admiring himself. So much for the purported "intuitive algorithm." "Social media use has been declining since 2022, with a nearly 10% drop in time spent on these platforms worldwide, as users shift from social interactions to mindless scrolling" (TrendsActive; FKCreative, et al). Human beings continue to use social media as a magic mirror, & the audience for look-at-ness is waning. Web 1.0 was based on dynamic communications. The Internet was meant to defy the historiography of the ad facilitation comms model. It didn't. It is now in the throes of the very same lifecycle as periodicals, radio, & TV. You've doomscrolled a magazine (taking in ads), the radio dial (complete with preset tech to keep you interacting with the ads), & cable TV (via a remote--to keep you interacting with the ads). Now, you are doomscrolling Netflix, Prime, & social media (all the while, taking in ads). The model hasn't changed: each of these communications technologies was designed to sell ads. No longer fresh & exciting, the world appears to be growing tired of watching people admiring & congratulating themselves--falling in love with their own reflections in the shiny pocket boxes--to the tune of one TRILLION in ad sales. What type of storytelling is preferred? Visual self-admiration or art/craft? Time will tell. Until then, Instagram is mostly insufferable.

Alex Kurtzman on his vision for Star Trek: "Star Trek, really since its inception, has always… it’s endeavored to speak to the vision that we are all fortunate enough to live in every day. It’s unfortunately not the vision that the rest of the world is living in, but we live in this perfect world where, as Heather said, everybody really is united, and a lot of the differences that are dividing us these days are gone." "So Star Trek United is an effort to bring awareness to many of the organizations that are critical right now, Black Lives Matter, the NAACP. A lot of our cast speaking to that, Star Trek speaking to it. The goal is not really to promote Star Trek, but to promote these organizations, and to use our platform to be able to bring greater awareness to these very, very important messages and places." Is this what Star Trek has always been?

It’s very character driven! And it provides a striking visual contrast to the ROTS finale. Fire and water. Yin and Yang.

William Shatner in how he failed and regrets Star Trek V: The Final Frontier: "I failed... In my mind, I failed horribly. I wish that I’d had the backing and the courage to do the things I felt I needed to do. My concept was, 'Star Trek goes in search of God,' and management said, 'Well, who’s God? We’ll alienate the nonbeliever, so, no, we can’t do God.' And then somebody said, 'What about an alien who thinks they’re God?” Then it was a series of my inabilities to deal with the management and the budget. I failed. In my mind, I failed horribly. When I’m asked, 'What do you regret the most?,' I regret not being equipped emotionally to deal with a large motion picture. So in the absence of my power, the power vacuum filled with people that didn’t make the decisions I would’ve made." Did he not make this movie ambitious enough for Star Trek?

We could have had it all, guys, but Bob Iger was like: "wE dOn'T sEe hOW bEn sOLo cOuLD bE aLIvE"

OK I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it EVERY SINGLE TIME I step foot in Walmart because apparently NO ONE is listening: WHY are people walking around this store looking like they literally just rolled out of bed?!?! Hair looking like a bird’s nest, lounge clothes on, slippers like you forgot you had them on before they you the house. I’m sorry but if you’re gonna come out in public to grocery shop, at least have the common decency to put on REAL CLOTHES! People are so unbelievably lazy these days it’s actually embarrassing. You shouldn’t be trotting around like that in front of actual functioning adults! It’s an embarrassment to everyone around you and quite frankly I get SECOND-HAND embarrassment just having to witness it. Fix yourselves, people. This is not a hotel lobby, it’s WALMART...

North Carolina Hospitals have deployed these telepresence robots These allow doctors to interact remotely with patients. A real human doctor is operating this remotely and speaking with patients Yes, this is real. This is so dystopian North Carolina hospitals deployed these to combat doctor burnout and staffing shortages at some locations